State, local govts must collaborate on digital innovation

By Dylan Bushell-Embling
Monday, 08 October, 2018

State and local governments across Australia and New Zealand will need to take a coordinated approach to driving digital innovation and transformation in order to fulfil the promise of the digital government future, according to new research.

A report conducted by Ovum and commissioned by cloud application provider Infor, based on case studies from local and state governments across the two nations, argues that digital government is a necessary step in the evolution of government services.

It outlines two key methods being used by government organisations to drive digital innovation and transformation — a focus on innovative technology to inspire enterprise transformation, and a focus on emerging citizen requirements as a driver for change.

Smaller government organisations are more agile and have a digital advantage, and should therefore be taking a leading role in a collaborative approach to digital transformation that encompasses both state and local governments, the report argues.

A coordinated effort will be required to develop strategies linking engineering (operational technology and IoT devices), business systems (IT infrastructure) and economic development (emerging technology start-ups) into a single digital government ecosystem.

The report also outlines what Ovum considers to be the key ingredients for digital transformation success within the government sector.

These are a leadership team that supports and encourages transformation, empowerment of individual authorities to drive change, robust risk management practices to maintain community confidence in government and having the resources in place to drive change.

“To create an innovation culture in government organisations, we found that innovation must be everyone’s responsibility, and that a key challenge is to ‘learn fast’ — not just ‘fail fast’,” Ovum Chief Analyst and Practice Leader for Global Public Sector Kevin Noonan said.

“Digital citizens expect to interact with government in different ways, and there’s a significant opportunity for government to innovate, serve and engage with the community in a better way.”

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